HTML5 and video patents

HTML is the standard set by the W3C for how to write webpage markup. HTML5 was supposed to include a standard way to add video to webpages, but after lengthy discussions about software patents, the drafters announced on June 30th 2009[1] that they could find no freely implementable video format to recommend.

The two main candidate formats were H.264 and Ogg Theora, but the former is heavily encumbered by patents while the latter's future was deemed questionable because, as Google's Chris DiBona said:

Here’s the challenge: Can [T]heora move forward without infringing on the other video compression patents?[2]